LOUISIANA BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL GEOSCIENTISTS 9643 Brookline Ave., Ste. 101, Baton Rouge, LA 70809 REGULAR MEETING OF LBOPG Tuesday, July 17, 2018, 1:00 P.M. Louisiana Engineering Society Building Conference Room 9643 Brookline Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70809 MINUTES Chairman William Finley called the meeting to order at 1:34 p.m., Tuesday, July 17, 2018. He commenced roll call. Present: William Finley, Lloyd Hoover, Thomas Klekamp, Melanie Stiegler, and David Williamson, Board Members; Harry Vorhoff, Legal Counsel; and Brenda Macon, Executive Secretary. Absent: L. Todd Perry and William H. Schramm, Board Members. Guest: William R. Meaney, former LBOPG Board Member. Quorum established. Roll Call sheet was circulated for signatures. Public Comment Period Finley welcomed new board member, David R. Williamson; Bill Meaney introduced Williamson, providing an overview of the new board member s qualifications, and expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to have served on the board for several years (Meaney was the second person appointed to the board when it was first established and resigned effective June 5, 2018). Finley responded by thanking Meaney for his contributions to the board. Meeting Minutes Meeting minutes of May 8, 2018, were reviewed. Klekamp moved to accept the minutes; Stiegler seconded. The motion passed. Treasurer s Report Klekamp presented the May 2018 / June 2018 treasurer s report and reported that the balance at the end of May was $210,298.57, and the reporting period ending balance, as of June 30, 2018, was $211,184.56. He presented a graphic illustration of the monthly beginning and ending balances, as well as expenses and deposits, from June 2015 through June 2018. He mentioned that the line representing deposits is increasing but indicates a slight flattening. He explained that he isn t sure if the flattening effect is a trend; he projected that data in coming months should provide more clarity. He also mentioned that the goal to maintain a balance over $200,000 has been reached. On a related topic, he warned board members to make sure to get a receipt when returning rental cars to avoid overcharges. He then directed attention to the final page of the report, which provides numbers of total renewals both by month and year to date. 1
Finally, he mentioned that a copy of the 2018-2019 budget was included in the meeting packets. Finley pointed out that the budget was approved with changes at the May meeting; Macon explained that the version of the budget included in the packets incorporates the changes that were made during the May meeting and was added to the packet to give board members an opportunity to review that budget after the changes were made. Finley called for comments; none were forthcoming. The treasurer s report was filed for record. Standing Committees Application Review Committee: Stiegler announced that four candidates for full licensure were reviewed, and all, 1 through 4, were recommended for approval. She reported the committee also had four applications from ASBOG testing candidates during this period: Applicant number 1 was applying to take both the Fundamentals of Geology and the Practice of Geology exams; two applicants, numbers 2 and 3, were applying to take only the Fundamentals of Geology exam; and number 4, was applying to take the Practice of Geology exam only. She reported that all four were recommended for approval. Klekamp moved to approve the four candidates; Hoover seconded the motion. The motion carried. License Examination Committee: Stiegler reported that, with the four candidates recommended for approval at this meeting, six people have been approved for ASBOG testing on October 5, 2018. One person will be taking both exams, four people will be taking only the Fundamentals of Geology exam, and one person will be taking only the Practice of Geology exam. Complaint Review Committee: Perry was not present, so the committee reports on ethics review and seal guidance were deferred until September. Finley mentioned that the committee was also considering process guidelines for the annual CEU audits. He recalled that the board had already discussed and approved reviewing 2% of the total licensees in the upcoming audit; Macon mentioned that she is ready whenever the committee calls for the list of those licensees. Office Committee: Macon reported that she, Finley, Klekamp, and McCreary attended a training session at Campus Federal Credit Union (CFCU) to learn how to set up ACH transactions (electronic transfer and direct deposit). She mentioned that CFCU staff indicated they would need a board resolution to achieve some of the goals, such as allowing Macon and McCreary to obtain information about the account on the phone and to set up stop payments if the need arises. She then called attention to the draft resolution in the meeting packets. Discussion ensued; Hoover suggested that the specific services that staff are allowed to access be spelled out in the document, and Finley agreed that only access to stop payment services be included for now. Hoover asked for additional clarification on the banking process; Finley and Macon explained that process and the limitations that have been discovered so far. Additional discussion ensued, with Finley explaining that the need to mail checks to the two board members with authorization to sign, and for them to return those checks after signing, had begun to drive up costs and that he and the staff had been investigating alternatives to streamline the system. Hoover moved to approve the resolution with changes to limit the services requested for staff to stop payments in this particular resolution, with the understanding that, if access to additional services is required later, the issue can be revisited; Stiegler seconded that motion. Discussion continued, with Vorhoff restating the motion for clarity: the resolved paragraph would be amended to read access to information and stop payment services and the full names of the staff members would be included. Finley called for a vote, and the motion carried. Macon also reported that the contract with Dovetail Digital had been approved by the Louisiana Office of Procurement Services on June 25, 2018. The company has already completed the contract work, and they will be paid. 2
Macon explained that renewal notices, beginning with the August renewals, have begun to be sent electronically. If an email bounces, the staff send a regular mail notice to the physical address on file for that licensee. So far, responses have been good, with several licensees noting that they appreciate the change to electronic notification. Macon reminded the board that the Louisiana Office of Facility Planning and Control had sent a notice regarding the upcoming lease expiration of April 30, 2019. She updated the board on the progress made in renewing the office space lease. At its June meeting, the Louisiana Engineering Society (LES) approved the lease renewal and the option to renew for five years, extending the lease to 2024. Macon then announced that the CPA who conducted last year s Legislative Audit of the board will once again be conducting the audit this year. He has requested records, and Macon is gathering the information in anticipation of that audit. He has also requested that the board s chair, treasurer, and secretary sign the Louisiana Attestation Questionnaire in advance of the audit. She reminded the board that Vorhoff had reviewed the questionnaire last year and had determined that the document seems to be standard. A short discussion ensued, and Finley suggested that those who need to sign should do so. He signed the form (as Chair) and passed it to Klekamp (Treasurer) and Stiegler (Secretary) for their signatures. Macon reiterated Klekamp s earlier warning to board members to be sure to get a receipt when they return rental cars. Related to that, she explained that Enterprise, the rental car dealer with the state contract, sends electronic notification of rentals to the board office, so copies from individual board members are not necessary and, in fact, cause confusion for McCreary. Macon requested that board members who use the state contract auto rental service indicate on their travel reimbursement forms only the expenses they incurred during their travel. Discussion then ensued regarding auto rentals and reimbursement. Macon mentioned that she had included the schedule for the ASBOG Annual Meeting and COE Workshop, which will be held October 29 through November 3, 2018, in Monterey, California. Finley asked who among the board members would like to attend. No one volunteered. Finley indicated that he plans to attend; Macon mentioned that William Schramm had also expressed interest in attending and indicated that she would like to attend as well. Klekamp moved to allow one of the office staff to attend the meeting; Hoover seconded the motion. The motion carried. Legal Opinions Vorhoff offered to contact the Complaint Review Committee to continue working on the drafts for seal guidance and complaint review regulation. Finley agreed. Other Business The board was asked to respond to this question from a licensee: My understanding is that an hour spent in a professional meeting is one PDH, and one CEU equals ten PDH. A SCA course I am taking in August is worth four CEUs, or 40 PDH. Would I then claim 14 of those hours this year and let the rest roll over? Discussion ensued, with board members clarifying their positions. Stiegler moved that, for purposes of the CEU audit, CEU records for one year will be requested. If unit credits include rollover hours, then records for those hours must also be submitted. If the audit passes, then no other records are required; if the audit fails, then records for the previous two years will be submitted. Hoover seconded the motion. The motion passed. The board then took up the question of how the 2% will be selected, with the consensus agreeing that a random number generator would be used and that the audit will be conducted each month continually. 3
New Business Situation with applicant from grandfather period: Finley read the details of the situation and emphasized that the deadline had been extended a number of times to accommodate grandfather clause applicants, and this person did not complete the application by the final deadline though it was adequately advertised. He pointed out that others in this situation had no problem meeting the final deadline. Additionally, he remarked, in an effort to be fair, the board staff attempted to work with this applicant even beyond the deadline, but he did not complete the process even then. He also emphasized that notice that the application fee is non-refundable is more than adequately given in a number of places. He then stated that the only question is whether to allow this person to resubmit his application without submitting another $200. The alternative, he said, is to require this person to start the application process all over again without benefit of the grandfathering clause and to pay the $200 application fee again, or the board can resolve to ignore this applicant. Discussion ensued. Williamson moved that Finley write a certified letter to the applicant informing him that the application fee is an administrative processing fee and, by law, is non-refundable, and because his application and required materials no longer exist, a license cannot be issued. Then offer him the opportunity to reapply by reciprocity. The board will then allow him to use the $200 he has already paid as the new application fee and will consider the application under the same requirements of a normal review. Klekamp seconded the motion. The motion passed. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 83: Finley reminded board members that support of this resolution was previously approved and asked if anyone had comments about posting a notice on the board s website. No comments were made. Finley instructed Macon to add a link to the resolution on the board s home page with a brief explanation of the content of the resolution. Student request for clarification of work experience requirements: Finley provided details from a GIT who asked for the board s direction: A new GIT had worked with a licensed geoscientist for several months. However, that person is no longer with the engineering consulting company with which the GIT is currently employed, and the company has no plans to hire another experienced, licensed geoscientist. The GIT asked if the board would review the credentials of others in the company who may have the appropriate experience to train him. Also, the GIT has taken three semesters of graduate work, but only one of those semesters was full-time. How should he count that time? Finally, he is working on thesis research and asks how much of the time spent on that research will count toward work experience? Discussion of this situation among board members yielded this response: Does the GIT work with any other geoscientists? If so, they may be eligible. If not, does he work with engineers with significant experience with geoscientific work? If so, they may be eligible. In either case, the board needs to review their credentials (resumes) to ascertain their suitability to train a GIT. If the GIT wants the board to verify that the person/people with whom he works can attest to his geoscientific experience, he can send the resumes of those people to the board, and board members will review them. As for education, the rule is that when someone is working, that counts as work experience; when the person is taking courses, then that time counts as education hours as outlined in the rules. If the two overlap, only one or the other can count, not both. During the semester that he was a full-time graduate student, he can count that time as work experience. If he was working in a geoscience field at the same time he was taking courses during the next two semesters, he would count the work. He can submit his 4
work schedule v. school schedule to the board if he wants a more specific assessment. To the question regarding thesis research, the board would need to see his thesis proposal to make that determination. Adjourn The date of the next regular meeting of the board will be Tuesday, September 11, 2018. Stiegler moved to adjourn the meeting; Hoover seconded. The motion passed. Finley adjourned the meeting at 3:48 p.m. 5